No, I am not talking about the Enlarged Onyxia Hide Backpack, as snacky as that is. No, I’m talking about the must get, items from the Dragon Queen’s horde. She’s got a few choice pieces for everyone’s wanted list.

Burnished Quel’Serar/Gleaming Quel’Serar – Once, Quel’Serar was the must have tanking sword for serious raid tanks. It was incredibly hard to get – a quest reward from a rare drop item in Dire Maul (one of the most awesome, yet neglected instances in Classic WoW). You no longer need to forge it in Onyxia’s fire and quench it in her blood. She just coughs it up. Now, in many ways this is an upgrade from Titanguard, but I should point out before everyone gets all excited that it has no defense on it, which means that you better hope you have enough defense to make up for the loss that you’re about to endure. Fortunately, Onxyia is also providing a little help there with…

Purified Onyxia Blood Talisman – A defense trinket! Let’s make no mistake here about the Health Regen or Parry Rating. You want this for the precious precious defense. If you’ve already got your Seal of the Pantheon and the Repelling Charge, this is likely not much of an upgrade, but given how much easier it is to get (a quest reward from a guaranteed drop) I think my enthusiasm is very forgivable.

Helm of Wrath/Faceguard of Wrath – The hideousness of the infamous “Land Shark” hat aside, it is hard to argue that this isn’t an amazingly itemized avoidance piece. Compare this to the Hellscream’s Greathelm of Triumph to see what I mean. The latter is much more difficult to get (requiring defeating Heroic ToC bosses, a challenge for perhaps everyone but the top tier of raid guilds), and the stats are, shall we say, startlingly close. Definitely a quality addition to any avoidance set. Just keep your helm graphic turned off.

So that’s your tank specific summary for Onyxia. Pretty nice! These pieces are a great way to help get yourself that much more ready for Icecrown – especially if your raid doesn’t get around to killing Heroic ToC bosses. Good luck with the Dragon, my fellow tanks, and remember – she doesn’t deep breath more often, it’s just you.

In case you missed it, Onyxia is making a comeback. But let’s be serious here, the encounter mechanics are seriously out of date. Onyxia needs a face-lift, pronto, both to make it fun and make it worthwhile. For your entertainment, may I present a list of sorts of things that desperately need to be updated about Onyxia to catch my interest.